Leitis in Waiting (2018) on Netflix
NR20181h 12mDocumentary
Joey Mataele leads the leitis, Tonga's indigenous transgender women. She organizes the Miss Galaxy Queen pageant as American-financed evangelicals push to revive colonial-era laws against them.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.5/1067 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Joey Mataele heads the leitis, Tonga's indigenous transgender women, and founded the Tonga Leitis Association, which offers them shelter and support. A devout Catholic born into nobility, she organizes the Miss Galaxy Queen pageant, a beauty competition for leitis that a princess presides over, and she houses and trains a young contestant whose family has rejected her. American-financed evangelicals are pressing to revive colonial-era laws that would make the leitis' lives criminal, and Mataele has opened a national conversation about LGBT rights in Tonga, where conservative church groups oppose her. Anti-sodomy laws stay on the books in eight Pacific countries, and arguments about the issue are often led by voices from outside Tonga, such as Australia.
Cast
- Joey Joleen Mataeleas Self
- Eva Baronas Self
- Princess Salote Lupepau'uas Herself
- Pastor Barry Taukoloas Himself
- Hon. Frederica Tuita Filipeas Self(Princess Frederica Tuita-Filipe)
- Princess Salote Lupepau'u Tuita-Taioneas Self
- Leafa Wawrykas Self(Leafa Mataele Wawryk)
- Melielau Manuas Self - Radio Announcer(uncredited)
- Princess Salote Mafile'o Pilolevu Tuitaas Self(uncredited)
- King Taufa'ahau Tupou IVas Self(archive footage)(uncredited)
- King Tupou VIas Self(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Leitis in Waiting (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson met Tongan activist Joleen Mataele at a screening of their earlier film Kumu Hina arranged by her friend Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu. Their plan for a short about the Miss Galaxy Queen pageant became a feature after Mataele launched a 2016 national discussion on LGBT rights.
- Instead of a standard rollout, the filmmakers screened Leitis in Waiting across the Pacific and worked with Pacific LGBT groups to stage advocacy events, using each screening to gather people and resources in local communities.
